


Secured

by Pookie02



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, clearly the only way to reach the kids is to annoy them from the shadows, dadproofing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 04:49:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8519122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pookie02/pseuds/Pookie02
Summary: Soldier: 76 discovered Watchpoint Gibraltar is home to the newly recalled Overwatch and doesn't approve of its lax security. So he takes matters in his own hands.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This came to me while waiting for a match to start. Also hello; I'm not sure if I'll do much more than little snippets like this around these parts, but hopefully someone else will enjoy these little stress relievers.
> 
> This isn't exactly proofread or edited, so I apologize for any errors.

The sun was starting to lower in the sky, and the light tinted the rocks of the cliff yellow. The vivid blue sea, which surged up the rocks sent sprays of white foam, framed the view. The sound of the rolling waves was peaceful.

There were boats slowly roaming past in the distance. It would only take one pair of binoculars to spot him, especially with the bright leather he wore. But Jack was willing to take the chance as he stared out at the sea, just for a moment.

Gibraltar had always been one of their most beautiful bases. There hadn't been many reasons for Jack to go there when he was Strike Commander; his specialty ran in a different direction than literal rocket science. Yet the man managed to find a way to visit on occasion.

Finding time to stare at the sea when he was younger had been no small effort. There hadn't been enough hours in some days to sleep when things got rough. A change of vocation from a public figure to a creep who slunk in the shadows hadn't granted him much for extra time, however. He couldn't linger for long.

He'd been breaking into the base every day for the last week. He'd thought the location had been abandoned or locked down like most of the watchpoints and other facilities, but now he found it was the de facto base of operations since the recall. 

Overwatch had been dead and someone decided to drag it back out of its grave. Jack knew the feeling. 

And as much as he wanted to ignore the call to arms that had sounded or that there were clear signs that it had been heeded by others, Jack found himself going out of his way to the sunny cliff the base sat on. Though instead of the prodigal son returning, he was testing the security measures this rag tag, highly illegal version of Overwatch was using. 

He might not have been Blackwatch, but Jack knew a little about skulking around in the shadows. At least enough to keep from setting off the scant alarms on the base. And if he could get in, so could others. And there were some who hated leaving jobs unfinished.

On the first day he had been alarmed with how easily he'd snuck in. Up the cliff he'd climbed and all the way to the stair alcove where food supplies had been stored with no interference. No cameras. No sensors. It was unacceptable and required correcting, but Jack wasn't going to march in and lecture whoever had decided to keep things so unsafe. Instead he decided to send a clear message that they had been breached. He'd filled a bag with the most expensive noodle bowls, the good instant meals and all the coffee-based energy drinks stored in the room, along with the single six pack of beer that had been tucked into a corner. Things they would miss instantly. It was just an added bonus that he'd be eating good for a few days.

The message had been received; the next day the door had been locked and a camera that hadn't been there before was bolted above the entryway. With that extra precaution, Jack had to redirect his entry point to the facility, which added several minutes to the climb. 

Satisfied with that area, but far from happy with the rest, Jack had snuck up to the catwalks and climbed into the server room's air ducts. The small space not only had good ventilation, but it was as air conditioned. It had been remarkably humid, and climbing up to the base had been miserable, so he found a good spot and got comfortable, then napped for the rest of the day.

Once it was late enough at night that either everyone would be asleep or at least tired, he crept into one of the comm bay landings and accessed the computer system. The terminal was likely monitored by Athena, but there were no cameras in the room, and any fingerprint scanning capabilities the keyboard had were thwarted by Jack's conductive gloves. He got in the system with an old extra account that had been made for testing purposes; plenty of people would have used it before, but it seemed like no one had thought to get rid of it. He activated every alarm he dared trigger before fleeing out of the tower and back down the cliff. 

He had heard shouting from the direction of the bunks on the way out. The alarm system made a godawful racket, never mind the blaring lights. He was pleased once his visor picked up the extra sensors by the building entrances the next day.

Now, by then there was a chance the group suspected one of their own for what had happened so far. Most of them were young; it seemed all of them were excited for the recall. It was possible they thought someone was pulling an elaborate set of pranks. Jack had to assume Winston thought otherwise; the upgrades each day were thorough and well-installed.

But it still wasn't enough. And it was possible they still weren't convinced of outside interference. So that night, Jack did the only thing he could think of short of hurting someone that would not be seen as a prank. Something everyone on the base would suffer from. He cut off the internet access.

Not just unplug a few wires; Jack dismantled the satellite receivers and hid the parts. It had taken most of the day while holed up in the server room again to figure out which satellite he needed to target. The schematics took a while to figure out; Jack didn't want to mess up one of the arrays that had anything to do with any research going on. 

Once the wifi was down, Jack deployed small jammer. Not enough for the high end equipment to be taken offline, but no one would be able to use their mobile data for an hour if it wasn't discovered.

He wanted to see their reaction time on this particular move; Athena would likely be very affected by getting her data cut off. So instead of rappelling all the way back down the rock, he picked a wider outcropping and stretched out to wait. It only took thirty minutes before his visor picked up the reestablished wifi signal. A good sign.

Today he'd climbed up another access point, but this was the last time he'd come, at least for a while. The people in the base were on high alert now, and he'd be caught if he kept this up. Jack wasn't coming back to Overwatch; if he was discovered, it would only cause trouble. Maybe in a few months when he had a few days to kill he'd come back and see how lax they'd gotten. 

There was a meeting going on in the briefing room on the other side of the watchpoint, Jack had overheard a chipper voice he pretended he didn't recognize as he'd climbed up. That gave him the time he needed to sneak into the research lab.

Athena was his main obstacle, but Jack was going to use a somewhat dirty trick on her. He had wondered if his clearances had been cancelled at the bases, but he wasn't willing to cash that chip in yet; today he'd just use a small EMP.

Nothing that would fry the program's core or damage the equipment, just a little nap. It would only buy him five or so minutes, then hell would break loose. 

He crept up to the entrance carved into the rock and set the device down once he armed it. A few taps and the timer was set, and off he went around the corner of the comm tower so his visor wouldn't be knocked offline. There was a beep, what sounded like a surge of static, then a pop. Five minutes. Up the stairs and into the lab to finish up this project. 

The research bay was the most used of the rooms Jack had been in so far. There were Winston's effects everywhere, but there were signs of others as well. A small blue and white sweater, scattered hairpins, magazines that didn't seem likely to the gorilla's interests and enough different types of energy drink and pop cans that couldn't have been the work of only one person. This was the newly recalled Overwatch's nerve center, and he wanted it clear that someone had entered without their permission.

Up to the desk with a tire for a seat by the wide, curved window, Jack quickly shifted all the scattered debris piled up to the floor. He pulled a stuffed toy from a pouch on his hip, It was the half turnip, half octopus he could never remember the name of. Jack had stolen it from the crew quarters when he'd first stalked the base. It would serve as a warning and a reminder of his intrusion, at least he hoped. The man had considered a printed copy of the Petras Act for the job, but that had seemed melodramatic. He looked at the stitched on cutesy face staring up at him, and moved to set it down. But before he did so, he spotted a few of the printed pictures adhered to the desk's monitors.

Winston and Tracer and a shot of Mercy and Torbjorn from one of their Halloween parties were spared a quick glance, but he couldn't help it as his attention was drawn to the long panorama shot that hung across the top of one of the monitors. It was of the day Winston had formally been inducted into Overwatch. He looked at all the faces, focusing on a few of the ones he'd never see again with a barely contained sigh. That had been a long time ago.

He tore his eyes away from the photo and set the toy down, just as he heard it; the soft whisper of movement.

Jack didn't take any time to think, he just turned away from the desk and bolted out of the room along the back catwalk. He could make out footsteps, fast and lightly pinging against the floor.

Genji Shimada had come back to Overwatch, it seemed. Jack skidded to a halt by a door he found open a crack and pried it the rest of the way. Once he crammed himself through, he jammed the two panels together, then melted it closed as best he could with a few pulse rounds. 

That was not going to be enough to stop the other man, so Jack quickly continued through the hall. He spilled out another door at the comm node and started for the roof access. He didn't want to be caught; he didn't even want to be seen. That was going to be a problem with a cyborg ninja who had special ops training. 

But that didn't mean Jack was in trouble yet; all he needed to do was go down the stairs to the cliffside and-

And then he heard the pinging of light footfalls again, coming the direction he'd intended to go. He turned, then had to climb up a canister container to make his way over the roof of the stair access. The big stenciled letters of the hanger were above a catwalk he had to climb around a pillar to access.

A shuttle was just in front of him, but with sounds of footfalls still in pursuit, he knew he'd have to do something to send Genji in the wrong direction. So he apologized mentally to Winston, pulled the rifle off his back and shot a few pulse rounds into a tower of crates sitting on the hangar's main bay.

The shots blasted one of crate's armored paneling, and the rest of the pile started to teeter ominously. Jack paid it no further mind as he slung his rifle again. He took a step back, then leapt for another pillar covered in zigzagging metal. Around that he climbed, then leapt off to the platform against the shuttle.

Up over a set a tarp-covered boxes, he dropped out of view. He didn't linger, but Jack was pretty sure he heard Genji land on the floor of the hangar, probably moving to stop the crates from all falling.

Jack stopped his rapid run in favor of moving quieter, and made for the orange-painted platform outside the building. He was home free now; down the stairs he saw the edge of the cliff and the sea beyond.

He had rappelled down to a lower outcropping and started retracting his climbing gear when he heard voices and footsteps pour out of the briefing room above him. Once they passed by Jack knew he was in the clear.

He gave himself a moment to finish catching his breath before setting up to lower himself down further. He found himself unable to keep a smile off his face; the people operating out of this base knew to keep it better guarded. That was one load off his mind, at least for a while.

His reward had been the chase with Genji; it was nice being able to push himself without the worry of turning a weapon on another person. Something he hadn't been able to do since he'd crawled off into the shadows on his own.

There was a little pang of something Jack didn't care to identify as he reminded himself he was leaving for the foreseeable future. He wasn't rejoining Overwatch, so there wasn't any point in overthinking a brief, actually pleasant almost-encounter with an old ally.

Jack allowed himself a sigh as he set up his climbing equipment, then had to banish the thought of the picture he'd lingered on in the research lab. That had been a long time ago.


End file.
